The who and what of the Ishrat Jahan case

The CBI on Thursday filed the second chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, naming one former and three serving Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials, while leaving out Narendra Modi’s top aide Amit Shah.

Former IB officer Rajendra Kumar has been named as the main accused, while three serving IB officials — P Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede — too have been charged with murder and criminal conspiracy.

The CBI had in July last year filed the first chargesheet, alleging that Jahan and three others were killed in a fake encounter on June 15, 2004. The agency accused eight police officials, including three Indian Police Service officers, of murder, abduction, conspiracy and destruction of evidence, among other offences. Here are key facts about the encounter and the people involved in the case:

June 15, 2004: Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar killed in a police encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The police claim they were members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba on a mission to kill Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.

People invovled

Ishrat Jahan: A college girl from Mumbra, Maharashtra, she belonged to a lower middle class family. Second of seven siblings, Ishrat became the breadwinner of the family after her father’s death in 2002.

Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh: A Mumbai-based petty criminal involved in counterfeit currency and smuggling, he was friends with Ishrat.

Amjad Ali Rana: Reportedly a Pakistani national but there's no documentary evidence to prove it. His identity remains a mystery.

Zeeshan Johar: Reportedly a Pakistani national but no one claimed his and Amjad Ali’s bodies after they were killed. Zeeshan is said to have been handed over to Gujarat police by IB officials before the encounter.

Before the encounter

On June 11, 2004, Ishrat left for Nashik with Javed. Later that day and the day after, she called her mother from Nashik.

It is not known how she came to be found in Gujarat on June 15 when she was supposed to be in Maharashtra.